Accused Hialeah absentee-ballot broker kept campaign notes

via @msanchezMIA and @kikeflor

Deisy Pentón de Cabrera kept meticulous notes on hundreds of voters, several political campaigns between 2008 and 2012 and what appear to be payments of $50 to $1,300 that are not on any candidate’s financial reports.

Detectives confiscated three notebooks in which she wrote this and other information last summer. Finally, nine months after her arrest for alleged ballot fraud in Hialeah, the notebooks have been presented as evidence in the case.

Cabrera, 57, wrote in a shaky hand and used abbreviations that are difficult to decipher. But her notes shed some light on the busy workload of this accused ballot broker, or boletera:

• She had access to more than 550 voters, the vast majority elderly Hispanics who live in Hialeah. The people whose names, address, phone numbers and dates of birth she tracked on lists titled “Deisy’s Voters” include some who have Alzheimer’s and others who are illiterate. Next to some names, Cabrera noted whether they were blind or deaf.

The financial reports for three of these candidates show that Cabrera was a hired campaign worker, but the payment amounts are half of what Cabrera wrote in her own notes.

• Cabrera didn’t work alone, but was a part of a political apparatus with access to updated absentee voter information from Miami-Dade County’s Election Department. She kept directives written by others to visit particular groups of voters or to take others to early-voting polling places.

She also kept contact information for the campaigns for which she worked, including those of former U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and state Sen. Rene García.